Ginny Marvin says, “Last summer, Google began a test showing business names in the headlines of call-only ads after the phone number. The change led to better conversion outcomes, and Google is now rolling it out of testing globally. This was one of several announcements made around call-only ads and call extensions Google made on Wednesday. Account-level call extensions For advertisers that use one main number for call extensions, Google is rolling out account-level call extensions this week. These advertisers will no longer have to apply the same call extension to multiple times within... [...]

Todd Saunders says, “As advertisers, we can’t afford to ignore data in our decision-making. Since you probably just sighed a little bit or rolled your eyes at that sentence, here are four facts that reveal why ignoring data is like ignoring the fact that you are currently on fire: 1. Online advertising is getting more competitive Since AdWords and other PPC platforms are auction marketplaces, or “pay to play” channels, more players means more money needed to play. Each year, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC releases their “Internet Advertising Revenue Full-Year Report,”... [...]

Daniel Gilbert says, “We all love to know what our competitors are up to. We shouldn’t care that much — we should probably just get on with being the best. But we just can’t help ourselves. The best (and only empirical) source of competitor data is the AdWords Auctions Insights report. The only problem with this report is that it’s not easy to see changes over time, you can’t do any filtering, and you can’t add in any of your own performance data to see how competitor changes affected anything. And it can’t be pulled automatically, even after it’s been available for four years. Anyway,... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Automation is nothing new in AdWords, but this month, Google launched a pilot that adds new text ads to advertisers’ accounts. Dubbed Ads Added by AdWords, the program started on January 26. Not surprisingly, this news has set off alarm bells among paid search managers that worry about Google usurping control over the ad creation and testing process. Here is what we know so far about this test. The initial set of advertisers were notified of the pilot on January 12. For those that chose to participate, ads were added to ad groups two weeks later, on January 26, at which... [...]

Jason Puckett says, “The testing and implementation of ad copy in AdWords has become increasingly important — and increasingly difficult. This is a result of the paradigm shifts in AdWords account structures. The ad copy advice that follows can help improve ad copy relevance easily, at scale. Shift in AdWords account structures Throughout 2016, we have seen a major debate regarding the concept of AdWords account structures. Regardless of your stance, one major shift that we’ve seen over the past two years is search engine marketers reducing the number of keywords per ad group within their... [...]

Jason Puckett says, “The testing and implementation of ad copy in AdWords has become increasingly important — and increasingly difficult. This is a result of the paradigm shifts in AdWords account structures. The ad copy advice that follows can help improve ad copy relevance easily, at scale. Shift in AdWords account structures Throughout 2016, we have seen a major debate regarding the concept of AdWords account structures. Regardless of your stance, one major shift that we’ve seen over the past two years is search engine marketers reducing the number of keywords per ad group within... [...]

Mark Traphagen says, “At this year’s SMX East conference, which took place this week in New York City, Search Engine Land reporter Ginny Marvin and contributing editor Greg Sterling hosted a conversation with Google executives Jerry Dischler, the vice president of AdWords (@jdischler) and Babak Pahlavan, the global head of products and director of Google Analytics (@babakph). Dischler shared recent updates and changes to the Google AdWords platform, while Pahlavan covered the same for Google Analytics. Read on for highlights from their conversations. Jerry Dischler on Google AdWords updates Expanded... [...]

Dave McIninch says, “Today, Google ends support for Converted Clicks in Google AdWords. Advertisers still using this metric in reports or for Target CPA bidding need to take a few steps to successfully migrate to the Conversions metrics instead. This article outlines how this change may affect you and what you need to do. What This Change Means Converted Clicks is a metric that came about in 2001 with the introduction of conversion tracking, and has lost much of its relevance since AdWords made updates to the Conversions column in 2015, at which point AdWords encouraged anyone still using... [...]

Jason Puckett says, “In April of 2016, a small percentage of search marketers received notices from their Google reps that AdWords was changing. At the time, Google had recently eliminated right-rail ads, and it was making people nervous. When the expanded text ads announcement was released, it sent the SEM world into a frenzy. People panicked. Now that expanded text ads have been fully released to all AdWords accounts and the initial shock is over, what now? Depending on when you were granted access to this new ad type, you may currently be in one of the three stages of implementation. Plan... [...]

Frederick Vallaeys says, “We’re now seeing many of the changes AdWords announced in May rolling out to all accounts. This is great news in terms of enabling new opportunities, but it’s bad news if you thought your account was perfectly structured. While each new feature will work just fine with your current account structure, your setup may no longer be the most efficient — so now may be a great time to revisit the AdWords account structure debate. I’ll cover how each of the new features may change your opinion on the right structure for an AdWords account. Expanded text ads (ETAs) All... [...]